Mexican Drug War Takes 27 More

Posted on Sep 3, 2010

AP

A man lies dead after an Mexican army raid on a suspected drug cartel camp in northern Tamaulipas state.

Adding to the more than 28,000 people who have already died in Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s nearly 4-year-old war on drugs, 27 suspected drug cartel gunmen have been killed by the Mexican army in the border state of Tamaulipas after a suspected Zeta drug ring training camp was spotted from the air.

Mexican narcotraficantes have been battling government forces since 2006, when Calderon sent federal police and the military to fight the cartels, with little progress being made despite the incredible bloodshed. —JCL

The BBC:

The Mexican army says it has killed 27 suspected drug cartel gunmen in a clash near the US border.

A patrol came under fire as it approached an apparent training camp spotted during an aerial search over Ciudad Mier, the army said.

Two soldiers were wounded in the fighting, in the state of Tamaulipas.

In recent weeks Tamaulipas has been the scene of major violence between drug cartels competing for control of smuggling routes into the US.

Any day now, Obama will make an announcement declaring that USA “intelligence” agencies have discovered that all the drugs previously thought to have originated in Mexico actually come from Venezuela. “The security of this great nation is threatened”, Obama will intone in his best stentorian tone. “I am asking the United Nations for a resolution . . . ” The rest you’re very familiar with.

Legalize the stuff in the US already. Legalization with bring prices down, close down the black market for pot and hit the cartels—which get 60 percent of their profits from illegal weed—where it hurts.